Remember if the candidate is a good one he or she will more than likely have more than just your offer to consider, so the very first thing to do is truly understand how to stack the odds in your favour.

 

To tip the balance in favour of your company you need to be ready to sell your offer....but when you are doing this make sure that you understand and appeal to the candidate’s priorities and his or her personal circumstances.  Remember it is not always about money.

 

• Emphasise how their career will grow at your organisation
• Show how their contribution and role will be valued by the company
• Demonstrate you have a clear and flexible plan for their personal development

 

Never forget though you are dealing with a person and not a product – don’t just put the offer letter in the post and sit there waiting for it come back.  Get proactive! 

 

• Build rapport over the phone
• Meet up in person to discuss any last minute concerns
• Involve stakeholder in the closure of the offer – a wise head explaining the career path is a 100% better than a diagram!

 

When everything go to plan you have your starter and then you can think about the last stage of the process – the onboarding process, which we look at below.  However....not everyone will say yes.

 

So in the event your offer gets rejected – it’s your responsibility to get under the skin as to why.  For example the job may have be perfect for them but you may simply have done something say in the interview process that put the candidate off – you need to understand and remedy the reason why your perfect candidate has said no – or the odds are the next one will too!

 

Moving on – your candidate is signed, sealed and starting.  The final step of the recruitment process is the first big step in retaining them!

 

It is vital you have a straightforward onboarding process.

 

In its simplest sense onboarding is the process of seamlessly integrating your new employee into their new work environment.  Your focus here should be four fold, ensuring a strong employer welcome, affirmation that they have made the right choice, emphasising the way they fit into the company and the build of a long term relationship.

 

Ensure the real basics are covered early – a first day/week session covering all the company basics; employee handbook, payroll paperwork, company structure, mission, goals and any other structural information – but do not make the mistake of thinking that this “orientation” is the same as onboarding.

 

Remember you have made a big investment in terms of both money and time to secure the candidate – don’t be the fisherman who talks about the “one that got away”!

 

Whatever your company does or whatever the role is a successful onboarding process must deliver the following.

 

• A clear, structured route to provide new employees more information about the organisation
• Open opportunities to question and understand the company’s culture, its mission and operational goals
• The opportunity for a new employee to bond – be this a night down the pub or a formal mentoring program!

 

If you tick all the boxes you’ll have a happy, comfortable and productive employee who makes an impact!  Furthermore you will have a “brand advocate” someone preaching the virtues of joining your organisation...which after all will make the job of recruiting all the easier!

 

Happy recruiting!


Missed the previous posts? Don't worry, you can check them out on the blog archives on this site!

 

Chris Smith is the founder of yourpeoplemarket.com a game changing, free to use, fixed fee recruitment marketplace – where you can engage with agencies at a fee you set or less and only ever pay on success.

Before this Chris was Joint Founder of ecrmpeople, which over a seven year period he took from being a start-up to a £12m company.





 

 This is the beginning of the end of the recruitment process...but be under no illusion this is where you either realise the investment in time and money you have made in this process - or you end up with an expensive mistake.  The good news is the choice is largely yours!

First and foremost remember the interview is a two process – the best candidates will more than likely have more than one option...so do your own homework and be ready to sell both the role and your company.  Ask yourself a few simple questions beforehand – Why would someone want to work here rather than say your competition?  What makes your company a great place to work?  What four or five key words summarise your corporate values? 

 

Now the other key thing to do, is pretty obvious but often overlooked – be organised!  Are all the right stakeholders available, have you got everything properly set up, has any and all equipment been tested etc.  Do not be the John Cleese of the interview world; having to chase interviewers up ten minutes before the candidate arrives and not knowing the role in detail are clearly “no no’s”!

 

One final point on preparation – ensure everyone has read the CV.  You will expect the candidate to have done his homework on you – so it’s only fair everyone involved your side has done the same....BUT also be ready to interview without it.  Though this is a contradiction the point I am trying to make is be ready to try to get to know the candidate and not just their career.

 

Start the interview with a brief intro of everyone in the room.  Giving a candidate a clear steer on who everyone is and why they are in the room is key, but also make sure you quickly outline the process and the structure of the interview.  Knowing what is to come will put the candidate at ease and obviously enable them to show you everything they have got to offer – which after all is what you want to achieve.

 

It’s vital that everything you do in the interview needs a purpose – lots of people jump in with whacky challenges “to see how someone reacts to pressure”.  There is nothing wrong with this at all so long as it has a purpose.....asking someone to “sell me my pen” is all well and good, (though a little long in the tooth!).....but only if it has relevance to the role you are interviewing for!

 

As you go through the process of interviewing candidates a common mistake to avoid is a lack of consistency.  You need to be able to effectively benchmark everyone who comes in – to do so at the very least ensure that you are consistent in the questions you are asking!  I would recommend that you develop a core set of key or “killer questions” that as a minimum you ask everyone.

 

An old favourite of mine is to ask them “what they have done to prepare for the interview?” – if they say anything that sounds like “nothing” I wrap it up there and then.  No matter what the role is you want some commitment to show they want the job!

 

So far we have spoken here predominantly about the measurable skills that can be questioned and probed.  However it is vital that you still in a measured way factor in your instincts on people and remember if their first impression to you is poor – then what will it be like to much harsher judges namely your customers and the other people in your business whom they will be working with.

 

By way of a wash up your role in the interview is to facilitate and measure.  You want a candidate to shine and show you what they can offer – but by the same token you want this to be in a realistic situation – if a role is going to be pressurised, you need to create that sort of environment in the interview in your questioning...and obviously the same is true if the role is technical in its nature.

 

Know all the key factors for success in performing the role you’re interviewing for and be ready to measure them – in a consistent and objective fashion.  (An old and effective trick here is to build a list of questions by interviewing your existing star performers – you’ll often be surprised as to what they tell you it takes to succeed in the role!).

 

This is the beginning of the end of the recruitment process...but be under no illusion this is where you either realise the investment in time and money you have made in this process - or you end up with an expensive mistake.  The good news is the choice is largely yours!

Finally remember one last thing – let them talk!  If you get the listening balance right and let the candidate speak freely then the more you will be able to learn about the candidate on all fronts....meaning one thing.....you get even closer to making the right decision for your business!

 

Next week we’ll look at the last piece of the jigsaw, managing the offer and the induction.

Missed the previous posts? Well I first gave advice on how to make time to properly define the role, then gave guidance on where to post your vacancy, followed by some steps to follow when reviewing CVs and performing pre-interview checks.

 

Chris Smith is the founder of yourpeoplemarket.com a game changing, free to use, fixed fee recruitment marketplace – where you can engage with agencies at a fee you set or less and only ever pay on success.

 

Before this Chris was Joint Founder of ecrmpeople, which over a seven year period he took from being a start-up to a £12m company.

There are in excess of 15,000 recruitment firms in the UK alone.  So as an employer, where do you start when you need to determine which recruiter is the most appropriate to engage with?

Well, here a few key factors to consider when undertaking your decision making process.

1. Is the Agency REC or APSCo accredited?  Recruitment agencies registered with either the REC or APSCo have to conform to a professional code so generally, you can rest assured you will receive a professional service.
2. Are They Specialists in Your Industry or in the Skill Set You’re Hiring For?  Generalist agencies have a place. They can be useful for an employer who needs to recruit for a wide variety of roles without the hassle of agreeing individual terms of business with a number of different recruitment agencies. Specialist agencies may be preferable however if you have a specific skill set that you need to hire. A specialist recruiter will have a solid understanding of either the niche skill set or the industry sector which you’re hiring for. Typically, specialist recruiters provide their services at a premium.
3. How well do they understand your industry sector?  A recruiter will have a greater understanding of what candidates are appropriate for your role if they understand the industry sector in which you operate and the scope of the role that the candidate would be required to perform if hired.
4. What is their track record?  Promises on what can be delivered may be no more than promises. Although no guarantee of future performance, a good indicator is past performance. Ask the recruiter to provide evidence of successful delivery – particularly with other employers in the same market sector as yourself, or who have sought to hire for a similar role.
5. Can they give you any client testimonials?  It’s very easy to extol one’s own virtues, but there’s a greater degree of significance if a third party sings your praises. Ask the agency to provide testimonials from their current and previous customers.
6. What fee are they wishing to charge you?  On average, recruiter fees can range from 18-25%. Your commitment to providing the opportunity to source volume hires through a recruiter can bring that rate down to as little as 10-12% (depending on how many vacancies you have).
7. Do they have a rebate clause in their contract?  Sometimes, regardless of how thorough the recruitment process is, the person hired does not work out for one reason or another. A good recruiter will acknowledge this and therefore will agree to source a free replacement for the employer should this situation arise in the first two or three months. If no replacement candidate can be found, the recruiter should provide the employer with a rebate of some form. An example rebate schedule is for 100% if the candidate leaves within the first month, 75% if they leave in month 2, and 50% if they leave in month 3. Beyond that, typically no rebate is provided.

As indicated above, this is not an exhaustive list of things to consider, but the items mentioned should definitely be included in your review process.

Good luck in your selection process!

 

Yourpeoplemarket.com is a free to use website that is helping 100s of businesses get the best talent in the market.  Through us, the hire process is often quicker and employers benefit from an average cost reduction of about 40%. Recruitment agencies registered on yourpeoplemarket.com are vetted before being approved onto the service. Employers can easily see a recruiter’s performance track record on the system and their YourRate score – which is an aggregate rating compiled by other employers who have engaged the recruiter in the past. All this helps employers to quickly decide which recruiters to engage with and find their desired talent fast.

 Golden rule number one at this stage of the process is make sure you are ready, willing and able to deal with the response you get.

 

Essentially without “over egging” thing you are now the window into your company and the way you deal with applications will reflect on your company’s brand.

 

First things first - be respectful enough to respond to each and every candidate. 

 

They have after all taken the time to apply for your job.  Even if the response to your job is high, I believe every applicant merits a response, it is simple, common courtesy and you will do your brand and yourself no favours if you don’t get back to candidates.  (Think of all the chasing calls you will get, people grunting in the market how you don’t respond.  Finally remember some of the applicants may be your best and most loyal customers!!).

 

To be clear this response doesn’t have to be anything complex.  For example have ready template letters and auto responders ready on emails etc.  Remember even if they are not right for your business today, you may want them to apply again tomorrow – so tread carefully!

 

Obviously there are many merits in a recruitment marketplace or agency based solution that could be discussed here – but I want to focus on you and your activity within your business.

 

Now when you begin screening the candidate response the first key thing to do is make sure that this time is red penned and all parties are available to feedback as appropriate.  There is little or no point in “teeing up” candidates for an interview by a line manager if they are not included in the selection process.

 

Moving on it is not that difficult to match a CV against your job spec, you know what skills you are looking for and if they are reflected in CV then great!  This said remember the CV is not the person you will interview it is a document!  So don’t rely on the CV – 90% of the people who get the job never look perfect on paper. 

 

So the message is decide on what is your core requirement and go from there.  Think too about applicants from “parallel industries”, they may not have worked in your vertical, but how transferable are their skills, an outsider with a different approach/way of doing things might be just the thing your business needs.

 

Now unfortunately it’s not all as straightforward as it sounds.  The important thing to remember when screening applicants is that they WANT the job – and this may mean that they embellish their achievements and tweak their CV to look just so.

 

As such be ready to pick up the phone and check details with a candidate.  A common smoke screen people put up is their salary – so make them aware that if they are called to interview you might want to see some recent payslips/commission statements. 

 

Make them aware before they enter the interview process you will (where appropriate) be doing some or all of the following:

 

1)     Confirming qualifications

2)     Taking at least two employer reference – follow these up properly!

3)     Conducting the appropriate Legal checks and Right to Work checks

4)     In a client facing role asking to speak to at least two of their clients

 

Additionally it is worth using the web to check out a candidate.  I without fail, when I have an initial sweep of candidates who I like to the look of on paper, take the time to put their name in a search engine and see what comes back!  I stress here do not put too much emphasis on this – but rest assured it will help stop you making the odd howler here and there!

 

Now when you have selected your shortlist to invite to interview make sure that you are ready for them to come in.

 

1)     Red pen “interview time” in all the relevant parties diaries

2)     Red pen “feedback time” where you get everyone’s thoughts – my view strike while the iron is hot within 2 hours of the interview

3)     Make sure you have the right environment available for the interview to take place

4)     Ensure without fail the candidate knows what you are expecting from them on the day, if you want them to bring examples of work along etc let them know – don’t just assume!  If it is a four part interview with tests – let them know at the outset!

 

Finally, do not invite the world and his wife for interview – time is one of most valuable currencies spend it wisely!

 

This is the third in a series of “common sense” recruitment tips.  Next time we’ll be looking at the interview process itself.

Did you miss the first two articles in this series? The first article outlined how to make time to properly define the job role, then in the second article I shared some experience on where to post your vacancy. Please have a look if you missed them when they came out.

 

Chris Smith is the founder of yourpeoplemarket.com a game changing, free to use, fixed fee recruitment marketplace – where you can engage with agencies at a fee you set or less and only ever pay on success.

Before this Chris was Joint Founder of ecrmpeople, which over a seven year period he took from being a start-up to a £12m company.

 Now that you have your job description nailed and you know exactly what you’re looking for...the real work starts!

 

The first thing to remember is that from here you start paying. 

 

So before you get the cheque book out ensure you give your job the utmost exposure through any and all free means you have at your disposal.

 

A quick checklist here should include:

 

1)     Communicate to the people in your business that you are in the market for new staff and be clear on what you are looking for.  Be this through a staff meeting, a noticeboard or intranet – make sure you have your company on the lookout for you – you will be surprised how many of your employees know people who are looking, but unless prompted would not prompt their connections to apply.

2)      Use any and all social media channels that your company employs to get the message out – put it out there on, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and any other network you engage in.  Don’t forget that if you do use these channels to keep them updated as you progress – there is nothing worse for a candidate than applying for a job that has already been filled.  Remember, if this happens then the next time you’re looking they might not apply and they just might be perfect!

3)     Obviously (but often forgotten) use your own website and if appropriate any other external communications you have e.g. newsletters, expos etc. 

 

Now you have these boxed off, you may if timescales permit, want to draw breath for a while and see what traffic comes through.

 

If you are not lucky enough to have relevant response from the above then the next step you need to take is to go “external”.

 

Before you do anything here it is key that you think about what your budget is to recruit as this is where simple mistakes can prove costly.

 

When you’re deciding on where to feature the advert, there are several factors that you can take into account to help you find the best medium through which to communicate the advert.

 

Firstly, look at the job description that you have written.  Where is the ideal candidate most likely to look for a job?   If you’re advertising for a marketing director, it’s probably not the best idea to advertise in your local newspaper.   Likewise, if you want a part-time receptionist, advertising in The Guardian might be over-the-top!

 

Think also about job boards, take time to research them properly most will promise much and deliver little – this is not to say that there aren’t some really great job boards out there, but they are only going to be as good as the candidate traffic they deliver to you so do your homework.

 

By this I mean you are better off with ten well qualified responses than a hundred responses from people who “just liked the look of the job”.  At this point I’d remind you again that the cost of advertising is only one component of your overall recruitment cost – you need to be set up to quickly and slickly deal with candidate traffic.  As such, it is vital that you have proper channels set up for all respondents – this is simply common courtesy and the minimum you would expect yourself if you applied for a job.

 

It is also worth thinking about recruitment agencies – if you choose this route go for a specialist and look at track record.  Again hidden costs hide down this route such as the time spent agreeing terms of business, educating them as to your needs etc.  Unless you have experience of using an agency it’s all too easy to accept the first deal offered by them – NEGOTIATE, never accept their first offer on a fee and aim to pay on success only – the market is still very much in your favour. 

 

Finally there are also recruitment marketplaces – the benefits of these services are numerous and include engaging with multiple agencies on a single TOB, you pay a fee your budget can afford and in general terms they are free to use and pay only ever pay on success.  The downside is that even though you are paying a lower fee to an agency you are obviously still paying a fee to recruit someone. 

 

On balance the most successful companies tend to take a blended approach from the above and remember the more organised you are in terms of your resource plans – then the more likely you are to find people at the lower price points!

 

To recap though be mindful of your company’s brand – it is all too easy to damage it through advertising in the wrong place, not being set up to effectively process applicants in a considerate manner and time is always of the essence – if a great candidate has applied to you then odds are their CV will also be with your competitors, be ready to move fast.

 

Finally, remember that you are the one who will be writing the cheque at the end of this - so which ever channel/s you use (be it the local paper or a boutique head hunter) you are entitled to demand satisfaction!

 

This is the second in a series of “common sense” recruitment tips.  Next time we’ll be looking at the CV review and interview stage.

The first article was on making time to properly define your job role. If you missed it, please have a look.

 

Chris Smith is the founder of yourpeoplemarket.com a game changing, free to use, fixed fee recruitment marketplace – where you can engage with agencies at a fee you set or less and only ever pay on success.

 

Before this Chris was Joint Founder of ecrmpeople, which over a seven year period he took from being a start-up to a £12m company.